Chapter 60 -----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: Heavenly Demon and Shin Chaeyoung (3)
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The heavy iron door, flung wide open to the outside, was polished smooth, making it impossible to close from the inside.
"Hey! You, close the door!"
A young man with purple-dyed hair from the group yelled at Shin Chaeyoung again.
"Close the door quick! The Landsharks are coming!"
Shin Chaeyoung sighed as she examined the iron door.
Now she saw it: unless there was an Awakener with telekinesis skills, someone had to close it from the outside.
"Haa."
She let out a heavy sigh and stared into empty space.
'Should I sacrifice myself for that immature unregistered Awakener?'
It would've been one thing if they were kids. But these people had deliberately broken the law and were shamelessly demanding rescue. Regrettably, they were adults with no value or reason to save.
Grrrrr!
That's when the monstrous roars of Landsharks echoed from afar.
The panicked young man yelled at Shin Chaeyoung once more.
"Are you deaf? Close it now!"
"No thanks."
"You kidding? You're from the Association, right?"
The young man glared at Shin Chaeyoung's cold, unmoving eyes and shouted.
"I'll report you to the Association! We even brought a nanobot!"
He pointed at the nanobot slung over one of the group's shoulders.
"It's all recorded. See?"
Whoosh.
A soft breeze seemed to blow from somewhere, and in an instant, the nanobot perched on the man's shoulder was in Shin Chaeyoung's hand.
"With this?"
"Hey, you..."
Crunch.
As Shin Chaeyoung clenched her fist, the nanobot's head completely crumbled.
"What a mess—a illegally modded knockoff nanobot. The casing's just plain stainless steel."
The young man stammered, staring into Shin Chaeyoung's eyes, which radiated chill.
"Are you insane? Don't Association Awakeners have a duty to protect citizens?"
"Yeah. Law-abiding ones."
"What?"
"You illegally entered the dungeon just for thrills. Why should I protect criminals like you?"
"What the hell..."
Shin Chaeyoung looked uninterested.
"I don't see the value in sacrificing myself for trash like you."
At her words, the group behind the young man jumped up in panic.
"What nonsense is this bitch spouting!"
"You know who my dad's the chairman of? Wanna get fired from the Association?"
Shin Chaeyoung stared calmly at the cursing mob.
"Yeah, right."
Her eyes gleamed like she was gazing at corpses.
Sensing utter terror in that instant, the mob broke into cold sweats and begged.
"H-Hey, come on. Don't do this. Just close the door."
"You trying to die with us?"
"Hey, Cheolhyeon! You go close the door!"
Watching them flail and shout, Shin Chaeyoung let out a hollow smile.
Humans facing death reveal their ugly true natures without fail. She'd seen scenes like this countless times rescuing people in dungeons.
'What should I do?'
For the first time, Shin Chaeyoung faced a dilemma.
By the Awakener Special Act, Awakeners had a duty to protect ordinary citizens—illegal ones, spoiled rich kids, scum from nouveau riche families, all the same.
And Shin Chaeyoung was a stickler for rules, almost obsessively so. She never let emotions override; she followed the law, the manual, orders, and protocol to the letter.
But now?
Sticking to principle felt profoundly wrong in a way she'd never felt before.
"This Sovereign merely walks his own path."
Suddenly, that shameless Awakener's words resurfaced.
Heavenly Demon, was it? Back then, it sounded like nonsense, but now... it resonated subtly.
'What am I even thinking?'
Shin Chaeyoung shook her head, realizing she'd been swayed.
'Me, buying into that sophistry?'
"Hey, what's she doing?"
"Is that chick crazy too?"
The trembling Awakeners gaped at Shin Chaeyoung shaking her head from afar.
Faces that had never known hardship, lived selfishly on whims their whole lives.
Seeing them, Shin Chaeyoung felt her cool slipping.
"You lot. Shut up and stay put."
Ignoring their stares, she muttered to herself.
"If you don't wanna die, keep your mouths shut until rescue arrives."
With that, she shoved the open iron door with all her might.
Pushing the door—thicker than a grown man's torso—sent a heavy jolt through her hands. It'd take at least an 8th Grade Awakener to manage that force.
Thud.
Finally shutting the chocolate-hued slab, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"It's just the job, after all."
Whether the rescuee was an Awakener or ordinary human, criminal scum or not—it didn't matter. Unlike before, the Special Response Team now handled Hidden Monster suppression alongside Awakener rescues.
"Can they hold out?"
Landsharks rated at 10,000 danger level.
Despite being only about 3 meters tall humanoid monsters, they matched the 20-meter-plus Giant Pep's rating.
Bone-crushing bite force, skin tougher than dozens of monomolecular cutters could pierce, and relentless pursuit once they scented humans.
"Five minutes."
Shin Chaeyoung glanced at the screen on her wrist and murmured lowly.
Yoo Eunho's ETA: about five minutes.
No direct comms, but years working together told her so.
"It's gonna be a long five minutes."
Thump. Thump.
Low footsteps echoed from afar. Definitely Landsharks following the scent.
Maxing her Healing Factor, Shin Chaeyoung gripped her right wrist with her left hand. Blue light flowed from her right palm, black from her left.
"Reverse Healing Factor..."
A healer's last resort: reverse the all-healing Factor to kill cells.
The thumping grew closer.
But then.
[...Lord Heavenly Demon. Please stop mining now.]
A faint voice came from the opposite wall. Mechanical, yet clear—and oddly familiar.
[You'll exhaust the seeds again. Just an hour ago, this underground dungeon was because of you, Lord Heavenly Demon...]
Listening to the mumbling, Shin Chaeyoung touched a spot on the wall of the right passage where the voice came from.
A gap amid the smooth surface. Tilting her head, she slipped her fingers in.
Clank. Creak.
With a loud metallic grind, a hidden door in the wall slowly opened.
"Not just one secret door, huh."
Peering inside, a man in a bright red mask hunched over, stuffing fallen super boomstones into a sack. A white nanobot stood before him, arms outstretched.
"You're..."
Despite the mask, those red eyes and that muscular build—only one man fit.
The unregistered Awakener from the opposite penthouse: Heavenly Demon.
"Hmm."
Heavenly Demon met Shin Chaeyoung's gaze with a troubled look. She'd surely threaten him again about being unregistered.
"This Sovereign came to mine super boomstones for interior work."
[Lord Heavenly Demon only came to mine super boomstones for interior work.]
Surprisingly, man and machine spouted the same excuse in unison.
As Shin Chaeyoung opened her mouth.
Grrrrr!
A chill hit her back. Turning, a massive Landshark glared with bloodshot eyes.
"What's that?"
Nameless replied glumly to Heavenly Demon.
[The price for ignoring me.]
"Cut the crap. Isn't that just fish?"
[Of course, to you, Lord Heavenly Demon, it might look like fresh sashimi... but it's a real headache of a Hidden Monster.]
Nameless shook its head, arms on its round head.
[Ahh, anyway, we're screwed. Seeing that shark-man—no, Landshark—crawl here, feels like the Stadium Dungeon's about to reset...]
Listening to their chatter made Shin Chaeyoung's head spin.
As the Landshark bared its serrated teeth and lunged, Heavenly Demon cracked his knuckles.
"Tired of this—come at me, fish."
"Run!"
Shin Chaeyoung rushed to Heavenly Demon's side, watching.
"No matter your super strength skills, you can't take a Landshark barehanded. It's a Hidden Monster."
"What're you saying."
"Landsharks rate 10,000 because their hide's nearly indestructible."
She spoke coldly to the nonchalant Heavenly Demon cracking his knuckles.
"You need razor-sharp weapons like monomolecular cutters or telekinesis to wreck the internals."
"Internals, huh."
[Wow, she's saying all my lines. Hehe.]
Scared of Association reports? Bootlicking? Nameless awkwardly added "our" to cozy up to Shin Chaeyoung.
"How do you know my name..."
As Shin Chaeyoung raised an eyebrow.
"You—stay in there."
Heavenly Demon ghosted up and shoved her into the secret passage.
"It's narrow—my fists'll spray everywhere."
Thud.
Before she could speak, the iron door slammed shut with a thud.
Simultaneously, a rumbling quake shook the ground like an earthquake.
Grooooar!
But the Landshark's roar unchanged. Did the attack fail?
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Sudden explosive blasts rang out in succession.
The eruptions pierced the thick door like invisible arrows, stabbing Shin Chaeyoung's chest.
"..."
The blasts stopped; silence fell.
Feeling off, Shin Chaeyoung shoved the door open.
Creak.
Emerging, she frowned. Heavenly Demon and Nameless were gone. On the floor lay the Landshark, peacefully sprawled.
"...Dead."
No visible wounds, but thin blood trickled from its mouth.
Plus, a massive hole now gaped in the formerly sealed wall.
They'd punched through here, not escaped to the Stadium Dungeon side.
"This Sovereign merely walks his own path."
Heavenly Demon's words echoed again, leaving Shin Chaeyoung dizzy.
"So that really meant 'the path'."
* * *
Next day.
"Put processing on hold for now."
Shield Boundary Zone, Special Response Team villa 5th-floor ops room.
Shin Chaeyoung set the nano chip from Cho Hong on the table and spoke flatly to her team.
"Just for a while. Treat him as nonexistent for now. For my mental health, at least."
The team nodded, fully getting her feelings.
In the silence, Han Manjae cleared his throat lowly.
"Better that way. Smart call."
Yoo Eunho leaned slyly toward Cho Hong.
"Team Leader, why not recruit him to our Special Response Team outright? We'd be invincible."
"Quit joking. An unregistered Awakener? Lucky if he doesn't get deported."
Shin Chaeyoung blankly watched the lively banter and shook her head.
The team used to be deadly serious, mission-focused.
But stuck in this urban corner—or because of that Heavenly Demon guy?—things felt loose, tension slack.
"Um, I mean... just hold off for a bit."
But her low mutter didn't reach the team's ears.
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